UX of EdTech

Alicia Quan chats with Dr. Rachel Schechter, who founded Learning Experience Design (LXD) Research at Charles River Media Group, acting as Principal Investigator and Chief Research Advisor to companies large and small. Rachel helps guide the use of data and evaluation to support product improvements, build evidence of efficacy, and strengthen customer implementations.

They discuss:

1. Ensuring educator-leaders choose literacy programs that work
2. LXD Research
3. Research certifications of products and why is it important
4. The relationship between UX research and these certifications
5. Advice for education/EdTech researchers of all kinds

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🔸 Connect: 

Alicia Quan chats with two members from Duolingo about their work as an early launch partner with OpenAI’s GPT-4 model:

Edwin Bodge, Principal Product Manager

Megan Bednarczyk, Senior Product Designer 

They discuss how they launched Duolingo Max, including:

1. The story of how Duolingo Max came to be
2. Biggest challenges of that journey and process
3. Balancing optimism with caution when it comes to recent developments in AI
4. Advice for teams currently exploring and building with GPT4 and generative AI

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🔸 Connect: 

Alicia Quan chats with Yuan Wang, the Head of Design at Maven, aka the university of the future. She is also a leadership coach (CPC) and an adjunct professor at California College of the Arts. She previously led design at Airbnb, Twitter, and Mozilla.

They discuss:

1. Maven’s mission
2. How the Founding Product Designer role influenced the business
3. Best timing for hiring design support at a startup
4. What’s next for leading design at Maven
5. Maven is currently hiring a product designer
6. Advice for those working in UX and also education
7. Learning communities 

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🔸 Connect: 

Alicia Quan chats with a few members of the team who worked on Quizlet’s Q-Chat, the world’s first AI tutor built with OpenAI’s ChatGPT. It is modeled on research demonstrating that the most effective form of learning is one-on-one tutoring.

Eli Kariv, Sr. Product Manager,

Pranavi Javangula, Product Designer,

Ling Cheng, Director of Machine Learning

They discuss:

1. What problem is Q-Chat solving for? What user outcomes were you working towards?
2. A common question being asked is whether ChatGPT is a threat to education. What is your take on the topic?
3. What were some of the concerns you worked through as a team?
4. What feedback have you received since the release from educators and students? What have you observed?
5. It’s March, 2023. Will we still be talking about ChatGPT next year? Thoughts on the anticipated release of GPT-4?
6. Advice for product designers, UX professionals, and product teams currently exploring and building with GPT and other generative large language AI models?

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🔸 Connect:

Alicia Quan chats with the team at Backpack Interactive. Backpack is a strategy, UX and design company focused on the EdTech space.

On this episode, we hear from:
- Principal and Creative Director, Sean Oakes
- Director of Creative Operations, Milagros Montalvo

They discuss the benefits of when companies design to outsource their UX design work and also the flip side when there would be factors that could make this route challenging.
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🔸 Connect: 

Alicia Quan chats with Nicole Gallardo, Founder and UX/UI Director of the program, Founders Who UX.

They discuss why UX work is important and valuable for EdTech and education companies. They talk about the biggest barriers startups face in hiring UX support, the options they have, and what their next steps should be.

They also touch on what’s next for UX of EdTech this year.

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🔸 Connect:

Alicia Quan chats with Jessica Millstone, a venture capitalist, angel investor, and co-founder and managing director of Copper Wire Ventures, an early-stage fund focused on investing in women-led technology companies, primarily in the education space.

Prior to the investing world, Jessica’s career spans deep and wide in EdTech and UX. She now brings her growing UX mindset to her current work with startups in the future of learning and work.

They cover several topics, including:

• Why UX work is important for EdTech and education startups (including success stories)
• The biggest barriers to startups hiring UX support
• How to win investors with a UX mindset
• Advice for founders and UX practitioners working together

If you are interested in hiring fractional and part-time UX support for your EdTech or education company, please reach out to Alicia Quan to get connected.

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🔸 Connect:

Alicia Quan chats with a former educator and principal, and now UX Writer at BrainPOP, Sarah Mondestin.

Alicia Quan chats with a Senior Product Design Manager at Coursera, Justin Morken.

They discuss how to approach moving the needle from design as a service to design as a thought partner. Justin explains in very practical ways how to shift people’s perception of what a designer does for the organization and the people it serves.

This is Part 7 and the final episode of the Design Maturity Series (2022). How do leaders build design maturity in their teams and across their EdTech company? What are the challenges and what benefits are in store? Be sure to check out our previous episodes.

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🔸 Connect:

Alicia Quan chats with the Chief of User Experience at EdPlus (Arizona State University), Amanda Gulley.

EdPlus is a central enterprise unit within Arizona State University focused on the design and scalable delivery of digital teaching and learning models to increase student success and reduce barriers to achievement in higher education. Students are deeply embedded throughout their design processes and team. They truly invest in students and emerging talent.

This conversation is PACKED with depth and insight. Be ready to take some notes as Amanda dives deeply into how their organization works.

This is Part 6 of the Design Maturity Series. How do leaders build design maturity in their teams and across their EdTech company? What are the challenges and what benefits are in store? Stay tuned for our final interview.

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🔸 Connect:

Alicia Quan chats with the VP of User Experience at Renaissance Learning, Jonathan Mann.

They discuss what design representation looks like there and take a look at the company’s journey towards design maturity in the midst of making acquisitions and merging into one team and organization. As a former design leader at PayPal and Target, Jonathan shares what he has learned about the unique considerations found in the education industry.

This is Part 5 of the Design Maturity Series. How do leaders build design maturity in their teams and across their EdTech company? What are the challenges and what benefits are in store? Stay tuned.

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🔸 Connect:

Alicia Quan chats with Jing Jin, Head of UX at Outschool.

They discuss how this startup has grown since 2017 and how the role of UX grew all the way to the executive level. Jing explains why Outschool has a role titled Head of School instead of a CEO and why they chose to skip the typical Chief Executive type titling.

They discuss the role of Head of UX and its impact across the organization. Jing explains some of the obstacles she has faced and gives advice for leaders looking to build design maturity at other EdTech companies.

We hope you enjoy our conversation and check below for ways to follow us further.

This is Part 4 of the Design Maturity Series. How do leaders build design maturity in their teams and across their EdTech company? What are the challenges and what benefits are in store? Stay tuned.

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🔸 Connect:

Alicia Quan chats with Jamie Reffell, Head of Design at Clever. In this episode, Jamie gives us a working definition of design maturity and then weaves that throughout Clever’s recent story of design team growth. We talk about what happens when design maturity models don’t neatly apply to smaller teams and what the team at Clever did when they were in that situation.

Also, what are the particular challenges that EdTech and education companies face when striving towards higher levels of design maturity? We discuss this and more.

This is Part 3 of the Design Maturity Series. How do leaders build design maturity in their teams and across their EdTech company? What are the challenges and what benefits are in store? Stay tuned.

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🔸 Connect:

Alicia Quan chats with Kara Hodecker, Head of Product Design at Panorama Education. In this inspiring episode, Kara masterfully unpacks how the team diagnosed their maturity level and the steps they are taking to grow rapidly while steadily increasing in design maturity.

This is Part 2 of the Design Maturity Series. How do leaders build design maturity in their teams and across their EdTech company? What are the challenges and what benefits are in store? Stay tuned.

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🔸 Connect:

Design maturity at EdTech companies. Who’s the best? This episode kicks off Season 2 and a series on Design Maturity within education and EdTech companies. We have a wide variety of companies and guests lined up so stay tuned!

In this episode, Alicia Quan chats with Adil Dhanani, Director of Product Design at Handshake. One of many things that stand out about Handshake is the presence of a Chief Design Officer role. We dive into this and the ripple effects that it has across Handshake.

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🔸 Connect:

Alicia Quan recounts the last year of the podcast (est. June 2020) and her journey in moving from a classroom teacher into UX and product design. She also discusses what is next for UX of EdTech. 

More announcements coming soon! @ux_edtech

🔺 Follow the UX of EdTech Network and Alicia Quan:

Alicia Quan chats with two instrumental team members on the Google Classroom product:

Amanda J. Rosenburg - Lead Researcher, Team Lead

Cora Foxx - a UX Design Lead

We chat about:

• How to research and design for such a diverse pool of users globally
  
• Researchers considering self-care for the stories they carry (especially during the pandemic)
  
• How learning theory (academic research) and UX research of users behavior work together
  
• Design process
  
• What’s new and on the horizon for the Google Classroom product
  
• Connecting teacher voice to product
  
• Resume and portfolio tips to work at Google (especially for those with an academic or education background)
  
• Favorite resources for design and research
  

Alicia Quan chats with Brett Gunter, a product designer at Weld North Education working on Imagine Learning products. They chat about a variety of topics, including:

• Bootcamp vs. university vs. self-taught routes
  
• Portfolio and interview tips
  
• First year designer tips
  
• Design critiques
  
• Favorite resources
  
• Continuing to sharpen skills throughout your career
  

Alicia Quan chats with several members from the team at BrainPOP about the collaborative work of cross-functional teams and the extra concerns that EdTech teams have in this space of education, students, teachers, and all the key players in that space.

They touch on having varied experiences before working in product design, including the role of a science teacher. They also cover some portfolio and hiring tips and the guests mention some of their favorite resources for their disciplines.

Alicia Quan chats with Mauricio Malo and Joy Leelawat, UX Designers at Kahoot! They talk about the diverse work environment of this company, their advice for designers working in the education space, and an example of a design approach.

How do you create a valuable digital user experience for children?

Alicia Quan chats with Rubens Cantuni, designer and author of Designing Digital Products for Kids. We discuss this guide to designing beautiful, usable, and ethical digital experiences for kids.

Be sure to follow up on the UX of EdTech publication for his guest article that gives a sneak peek of the book.

How do you teach UX design to teens?

Alicia Quan chats with Hazel Wyllie, UX Designer at BBC. Hazel is passionate about introducing young people to design thinking and careers in the design and tech industry.

This conversation unpacks a 30-minute lesson Hazel gave at a Tech Taster Day for girls. They also discuss how to scale this experience and why it is so important to share design thinking with young people.

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Let’s dig into the important work of EdTech innovation and how founders, designers, and researchers can team up.

Alicia chats with Ash Kaluarachchi, an EdTech startup guru, about several questions including:

• Do EdTech companies and entrepreneurs have a real grasp on what actual classrooms, teachers, and students need in K12 and higher ed?
  
• What edge do former educators have in the EdTech startup space?
  
• What advice would you give EdTech startup founders?
  
• Do they need designers? What should designers consider when selecting a startup?
  

Alicia Quan chats with the product team at Adobe for Education. The team unpacks many aspects of their roles and they answer questions that include the following:

• How did you transition from teaching into your current role? What transferable skills do you rely on?

• How do you connect Adobe products to what educators and students are already using and experiencing?

• How is your design approach improving the UX of teachers sharing content, lesson plans, etc?

• Tips and advice for those designing for the education space?

• Portfolio and resume insights from a hiring perspective?

• How do you infuse creativity into all types of classrooms (beyond the Art room)?

Guests:

⭐ Connect with Uriel Zarate, UX Designer:

Alicia chats with Dr. John Spencer, education professor and former middle school teacher.

When John discovered UX design, it transformed how he approached his classroom.

This is a must-listen for educators of all types.

Alicia Quan chats with leaders from the Prodigy Education team. We cover some tough and important questions, including:

- How do Product Management and Product Design work together?

- How does the team manage business viability with learner efficacy?

- How do they balance this learner efficacy with student desirability? In other words, is it just a fun game or are students really learning math?

- What does it mean to be a growth designer?

- What is on the horizon for Prodigy?

Our three guests this week are:

Mary Lee, Director of Product Management:

Alicia Quan chats with Asia Hoe, Senior Product Designer at Newsela. Their discussion includes:

- Relating the work of design systems with the work against systemic injustice

- Unpacking and refreshing your design process

- Tips for designers in the EdTech space

- Reflections as a woman of color in tech and design

- Newsela’s anti-racist curriculum work

How do you thrive in an EdTech role? Alicia Quan chats with Bridget Weis, Senior Design Manager at Microsoft Education. They discuss:

• How teaching experience influences her design position today
  
• Unpacking the decision to pursue building Microsoft Teams for Education vs. Microsoft Classroom
  
• Tips for transitioning into the EdTech space
  
• Advice for EdTech product designers
  
• Stress management and navigating burnout
  
• Insight on selecting a role in EdTech (not just design)

What should you consider when designing for kids?

Alicia chats with Debra Gelman, the author of Design for Kids, a Rosenfeld publication. She is also the SVP of Experience Design at Bottle Rocket.

They cover a lot of ground, including:

• Book’s origin story
  
• The difference of designing for a 7-year old versus a 9-year old.
  
• Outstanding apps for children
  
• Hurdles of writing a book on design
  
• Changes she would make to the book for 2021
  
• Some of the major pitfalls people fall into when designing for kids
  
• Designing an experience for multiple age groups
  

Alicia chats with Sabina Idler, the founder of UXKids. She is passionate about interactive media and designing for a very special and unique target group: children.

UXKids is the first research and consulting firm in the Netherlands that is specialized in UX research and Interaction Design for children. At UXKids they believe that the best children products are developed WITH kids.

📧 Interested in collaborating and working together? Let’s connect below.

Alicia chats with Justin Chando, the Director of Design and Vision at Flipgrid, Microsoft. This conversation is packed with insight as we dive into this powerhouse of a tool for the classroom. Topics include:

• The origin story of Flipgrid (founded by an educator)
  
• Justin’s journey and background in entrepreneurship
  
• Portfolio and resume tips for designers seeking EdTech positions
  
• Encouragement for educators as designers and future founders
  
• The role of teacher and student voice in product design
  
• What’s on the horizon for Flipgrid
  

Alicia chats with Finlay Thorburn, a product designer at Wakelet, about designing for teachers and students and why he has gravitated towards working with the education community.

• The team effort required to design for the education community
  
• Tips and advice for product designers in the EdTech space
  
• What is on the horizon for Wakelet and the design team
  

Alicia chats with Colin Gray, PhD, who headed up one of the first UX undergraduate programs at Purdue University. They chat about:

• Building one of the first UX design undergraduate programs
  
• Advice in building a UX education program
  
• How does LX stand out from UX and ID
  
• How do academic research and actual practice interact and influence one another
  
• Recommendations for UX students of all sorts and stages
  
• Finding meaning in your work
  

Alicia chats with Lauren Schaefer, the Director of UX/UI at Nearpod. Listen to get a look at the design approach behind Nearpod as they discuss a variety of topics for designers and educators:

• The role teachers and students play in the design work
  
• Advice for product designers working in EdTech
  
• Portfolio tips for UX designers
  
• The role of Director of UX
  
• What’s on the horizon for Nearpod fans
  

Alicia chats with Kim Ducharme, the Director of Educational User Experience Design at CAST. She works at the intersection of user experience design, instructional design, and the learning sciences.

Kim leads the creative process from brainstorming through prototyping to product launch. She is committed to harnessing the power of design to tackle the educational challenges of our time.

Our discussion includes defining edUX and where this domain is headed in the future.

Alicia talks with Alison Park Douglas, a UX Manager in EdTech currently at SMART Technologies. We discuss several topics:

• Taking the bootcamp route and transitioning careers
  
• EdTech product design considerations
  
• Doing user research with teachers
  
• Limits in EdTech for students
  
• Portfolio/resume advice and red flags

Alicia talks with Elyse Klaidman, former Director of Pixar University and a founding leader for Pixar in a Box and Imagineering in a Box supported by the Walt Disney Company. Beyond Pixar and Disneyland, Klaidman and the “X in a Box” team are working with other companies to package their resources for students across the globe. They are committed to working towards an equitable education system that provides opportunity for all.

- What it is like to work at Pixar

- How companies can grow their education initiatives

- Advice for designers and educators

- Unpacking the Media Bias Project based on “When They See Us” (co-written and directed by Ava Duverney)

Alicia talks with Yannick Dupont, a concept designer for LEGO Education. He reflects on his journey as a middle school science teacher, a freelancer specializing in LEGO Robotics and instructional design, and his eventual move to Billund, Denmark to work at LEGO.

What’s it like to work at LEGO Education? We get a glimpse here and inspiration for any design work in the education realm.

Alicia talks with the founder and co-founder of Gimkit, Josh Feinsilber and Jeff Osborn. Gimkit is a live quiz learning game that positively ignites classroom engagement and rivals the type of excitement produced in a Kahoot! set.

Listen in on several topics:

- How to make an EdTech product that is successful in the classroom

- How the team understands the pain points teachers and students experience

- The role of social media in their product design

- New game mode proposals and how to get your ideas actually built and published

- Advice to student game creators

Alicia talks with Maurice Woods, Founder and Executive Director of Inneract Project and Principal Designer at Microsoft.

Inneract Project (IP) serves primarily middle and high school youth who identify as Black, Latinx and/or of low-income backgrounds.

IP offers a pathway of free design classes and initiatives, in order to introduce youth to the field of design and help channel their creativity into viable career paths.

Maurice offers insights on a variety of topics, including:

• The intersection of sports and design
  
• The importance of pouring into underrepresented youth
  
• Figma as an accessible design tool
  
• Overcoming challenges growing up and later in the design industry
  
• Advice for young designers who are underrepresented
  
  

Alicia talks with Morgan Chin, a former elementary teacher and current UX designer completing her masters in Human-Computer Interaction at Georgia Tech and having recent internships at The Home Depot and Facebook for AR/VR. 

She spends her free time learning about and designing interfaces that will further bridge the gap between education, technology, and people.

Listen in as she describes her ideal workspace that brings together her love for kids and education with her work in technology and design.

Need inspiration as a creative leader and educator? Do you design for learners?

Alicia talks with Miguel Cardona, an interdisciplinary designer and professor teaching New Media Design courses at RIT College of Art and Design.

We chat about all things Figma and education! If you are a creative educator, leader, or designer for learners, you don’t want to miss this episode.

Alicia talks with three members of Backpack Interactive, a creative strategy, UX and design company in the EdTech space. As EdTech specialists, they believe in the power of thoughtful design and delightful UX to enable better teaching, learning, and communication.

• 
  Monica Sherwood - UX designer specializing in EdTech; former Special Education Teacher
  
• 
  Milagros Montalvo - Sr. Interactive Project Manager; former teacher with a background in early childhood education
  
• 
  Sean Oakes - Principal and Creative Director at Backpack with over 20 years of interactive design and account management experience
  

They chat about all things EdTech and the road to get there, including:

• 
  How teaching has influenced their current roles
  
• 
  The role of research in their product design
  
• 
  How remote learning put teachers in UX roles
  
• 
  What EdTech companies should consider this year
  

True or False? UX + ID + UI = LXD

What is Learning Experience Design (LXD)? How do you become an LX designer? Should you hire one? Where are the LX designers in the K-12 space?

Alicia discusses these questions and features multiple guest voices throughout the show.

What kind of education, background, and experience make excellent UX professionals in the EdTech space? Alicia talks with the president of Openfield, Adam Sonnett, about this and the current landscape in EdTech. They chat about what should be considered by EdTech companies in 2020 and beyond. Adam also unpacks how their agency functions and their vision for the future.

Openfield is an agency of UX professionals with deep domain experience in the EdTech space.

Alicia talks with Dannielle Rivera, a 2nd grade teacher, about what it is like to use EdTech tools in our current distance learning environment. If you have a hand in designing products for learners, you definitely want to check out this conversation! It is sprinkled with “on the ground” insights of usability and high level reflections on takeaways for product designers. Listen in if you want to be freshly reminded of what teachers are considering in an EdTech tool today.

Connect with Dannielle:

Alicia talks with Belinda Medellin, a Texas “Teacher of the Year” who has created one of the first UX course pathways for high schools in the United States. Listen to find out about her process and opportunities to collaborate with both Belinda and Alicia.

Designers, Teachers, Students: Interested in partnering to develop a high school UX course in your area? Connect here for a starter kit and next steps:

Alicia talks with Suj Premachandran about his work on a UX course designed for 8-11 year olds. Suj is the CEO of Digital Influx, an EdTech consultancy that aims to bridge the gap between education and employment. We chat about the influence that UX principles can have on education globally. Don’t miss out on this vision for educating children.

Connect with Suj: